This course develops elementary skills in reading, speaking,
understanding and writing the Russian language. We will work with an exciting
range of authentic written materials, the Internet, videos and recordings
relating to the dynamic scene of Russia today. At the end of the course
students will be comfortable with the Russian alphabet and will be able
to read simplified literary, ‘commercial’, and other types
of texts (signs, menus, short news articles, short stories) and participate
in elementary conversations about daily life (who you are, what you do
every day, where you are from, likes and dislikes).

This course will develop your ability to use the Russian
language in the context of typical everyday situations, including university
life, family, shopping, entertainment, etc. Role-playing, skits, short
readings from literature and the current press, and video clips will be
used to help students improve their language skills and their understanding
of Russian culture. At the end of the semester you will be able to read
and write short texts about your daily schedule and interests, to understand
brief newspaper articles, films and short literary texts, and to express
your opinions in Russian. In combination with RUSS 004, this course prepares
students to satisfy the language competency requirement.

RUSS107 Russian Outside the Classroom I
Prior language experience required
May not be counted towards major, minor or certificate in Russian
0.5 CU

Times: TBA (please stand by for updates) Yakubova A

The goal of RUSS107 is to provide students of Russian
language and students who spoke Russian at home with formalized opportunities
to improve their conversation and comprehension skills while experiencing
various aspects of Russian culture. There will be no weekly assignments
or readings, but all students will be expected to contribute at a level
equivalent to their Russian-speaking abilities both in class and on the
newsletter final project. The course consists of attending regular conversation
hours in addition to a tea-drinking hour in the department (F 4-5pm),
film viewings, and a single outside cultural event (e.g., a concert of
Russian music at the Kimmel Center).

This course develops students' skills in speaking and
writing about topics in Russian literature, contemporary society, politics,
and everyday life. Topics include women, work and family; sexuality; the
economic situation; environmental problems; and life values. Materials
include selected short stories by 19th and 20th century Russian authors,
video-clips of interviews, excerpts from films, and articles from the
Russian media. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary building.

RUSS360 Literacy in Russian I
Prior language experience required

MWF 11am -12pm Korshunova S

This course is intended for students who have spoken
Russian at home and seek to achieve proficiency in the language. Topics
will include an intensive introduction to the Russian writing system and
grammar, focusing on exciting materials and examples drawn from classic
and contemporary Russian culture and social life. Students who complete
this course in combination with RUSS361 satisfy the Penn Language Requirement.

This course continues developing students' advanced skills
in Russian, and introduces students to major movements and figures of
twentieth-century Russian literature and culture. We will read the works
of modern Russian writers, and watch and discuss feature films. The course
will introduce the first Soviet films and works of the poets of the Silver
Age and beginning of the Soviet era as well as the works from later periods
up to the Perestroika and Glasnost periods (the late 1980s).

This course is intended for students who have spoken
Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional
uses of the Russian language. A study of classic Russian literature in
the original. Readings will consist of some of the greatest works of 19th
and 20th-century authors, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,
and Bulgakov. Students will examine various forms and genres of literature,
learn basic techniques of literary criticism, and explore the way literature
is translated into film and other media. An additional focus of the course
will be on examining the uses and interpretations of classic literature
and elitist culture in contemporary Russian society. Observing the interplay
of the "high" and "low" in Russian cultural tradition,
students will develop methodology of cultural analysis.

RUSS130 Russian Ghost Stories: The Supernatural in Russian Literature
All readings and lectures in English.

TR 12 pm - 1:30 pm Vinitsky I

In this course, we will read and discuss ghost stories
written by some of the most well-known Russian writers. The goal of the
course is threefold: to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling
texts which represent various periods of Russian literature; to examine
the artistic features of ghost stories and to explore their ideological
implications. With attention to relevant scholarship (Freud, Todorov,
Derrida, Greenblatt), we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller
in ghost stories, and about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder
gender and class, controversy over sense and sensation, spiritual significance
and major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural. We will consider
the concept of the apparition as a peculiar cultural myth, which tells
us about the "dark side" of the Russian literary imagination
and about the historical and political conflicts which have haunted Russian
minds in previous centuries. Readings will include literary works by Pushkin,
Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov, and Bulgakov, as well as works by
some lesser, yet extremely interesting, authors. We will also read excerpts
from major treatises regarding spiritualism, including Swedenborg, Kant,
Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mme Blavatsky. The course consists of 28 sessions
("nights") and includes film presentations and horrifying slides.

RUSS049 The Soviet Century: 1917-1991
All readings and lectures in English
History & Tradition Sector (All Classes)
Cross-listing: HIST049

MW 11 - 12Noon Nathans B

Out of an obscure, backward empire, the Soviet Union
emerged to become the great political laboratory of the twentieth century.
This course will trace the roots of the world's first socialist society
and its attempts to recast human relations and human nature itself. Topics
include the origins of the Revolution of 1917, the role of ideology in
state policy and everyday life, the Soviet Union as the center of world
communism, the challenge of ethnic diversity, and the reasons for the
USSR's sudden implosion in 1991. Focusing on politics, society, culture,
and their interaction, we will examine the rulers (from Lenin to Gorbachev)
as well as the ruled (peasants, workers, and intellectuals; Russians and
non-Russians). The course will feature discussions of selected texts,
including primary sources in translation.

In this course, we will read and discuss ghost stories
written by some of the most well-known Russian writers. The goal of the
course is threefold: to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling
texts which represent various periods of Russian literature; to examine
the artistic features of ghost stories and to explore their ideological
implications. With attention to relevant scholarship (Freud, Todorov,
Derrida, Greenblatt), we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller
in ghost stories, and about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder
gender and class, controversy over sense and sensation, spiritual significance
and major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural. We will consider
the concept of the apparition as a peculiar cultural myth, which tells
us about the "dark side" of the Russian literary imagination
and about the historical and political conflicts which have haunted Russian
minds in previous centuries. Readings will include literary works by Pushkin,
Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov, and Bulgakov, as well as works by
some lesser, yet extremely interesting, authors. We will also read excerpts
from major treatises regarding spiritualism, including Swedenborg, Kant,
Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mme Blavatsky. The course consists of 28 sessions
("nights") and includes film presentations and horrifying slides.

RUSS145 Russian Literature before 1870
All readings and lectures in English
Arts and Letters Sector (All Classes)
Cross-Cultural Analysis (Class of '10 and after)

TR 3 - 4:30pm Steiner P

Major Russian writers in English translation: Pushkin,
Gogol, Turgenev, early Tolstoy, and early Dostoevsky.

RUSS190 Terrorism: Russian Origins and 21st Century Methods
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution II, History & Tradition (Class of '09 and prior)

MW 2 - 3:30pm Todorov V

This course studies the emergence of organized terrorism
in nineteenth-century Russia. It examines the philosophy of the terrorist
struggle through its methods, causes, various codes, and manifestoes that
defined its nature for the times to come. We critique intellectual movements
such as nihilism, anarchism, and populism that inspired terrorism defining
the political violence and disorder as beneficial acts. The issue of policing
terrorism becomes central when we study a police experiment to infiltrate,
delegitimize and ultimately neutralize terrorist networks in late imperial
Russia. The discussions draw on the ideology and political efficacy of
the conspiratorial mode of operation, terrorist tactics such as assassination
and hostage-taking, the cell structure of the groups and underground incognito
of the strikers, their maniacal self-denial, revolutionary asceticism,
underground mentality, faceless omnipotence, and other attributes-intensifiers
of its mystique. We analyze the technology and phenomenology of terror
that generate asymmetrical disorganizing threats to any organized form
of government and reveal the terrorist act as a sublime end as well as
a lever for achieving practical causes. Our study traces the rapid proliferation
of terrorism in the twentieth century and its impact on the public life
in Western Europe, the Balkans, and America.

RUSS196 Russian Short Story
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution III, Arts & Letters (Class of '09 and prior)
Offered through CGS

M 5:30 - 8:30pm Todorov V

This course studies the development of 19th and 20th
century Russian literature through one of its most distinct and highly
recognized genres—the short story. The readings include great masters
of fiction such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn,
and others. The course presents the best works of short fiction and situates
them in a literary process that contributes to the history of a larger
cultural-political context. Students will learn about the historical formation,
poetic virtue, and thematic characteristics of major narrative modes such
as romanticism, utopia, realism, modernism, socialist realism, and post-modernism.
We critique the strategic use of various devices of literary representation
such as irony, absurd, satire, grotesque, anec¬dote, etc. Some of
the main topics and issues include: culture of the duel; the role of chance;
the riddle of death; anatomy of madness; imprisonment and survival; the
pathologies of St. Petersburg; terror and homo sovieticus.

This course consists of three parts. The first, “How
to read Tolstoy?” deals with Tolstoy’s artistic stimuli, favorite
devices, and narrative strategies. The second, “Tolstoy at War,”
explores the author’s provocative visions of war, gender, sex, art,
social institutions, death, and religion. The emphasis is placed here
on the role of a written word in Tolstoy’s search for truth and
power. The third and the largest section is a close reading of Tolstoy’s
masterwork “War and Peace” (1863-68) – a quintessence
of both his artistic method and philosophical insights.

RUSS426 Chekhov on Stage and Screen
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution III, Arts & Letters (Class of '09 and prior)
Cross-listing: CINE365
Offered through CGS

T 5:30 - 8:30pm Zubarev V

Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program.
“What’s so funny, Mr. Chekhov?” This question is often
asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhov’s
definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of
them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies. Should
we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide,
or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the
laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome
be considered tragic? All these and other questions will be discussed
during the course. The course is intended to provide the participants
with a concept of dramatic genre that will assist them in approaching
Chekhov’s plays as comedies. In addition to reading Chekhov’s
works, Russian and western productions and film adaptations of Chekhov’s
works will be screened. Among them are, Vanya on 42nd Street with Andre
Gregory, and Four Funny Families. Those who are interested will be welcome
to perform and/or direct excerpts from Chekhov’s works.

This course continues developing students' advanced skills
in Russian, and introduces students to major movements and figures of
twentieth-century Russian literature and culture. We will read the works
of modern Russian writers, and watch and discuss feature films. The course
will introduce the first Soviet films and works of the poets of the Silver
Age and beginning of the Soviet era as well as the works from later periods
up to the Perestroika and Glasnost periods (the late 1980s).

This course is intended for students who have spoken
Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional
uses of the Russian language. A study of classic Russian literature in
the original. Readings will consist of some of the greatest works of 19th
and 20th-century authors, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,
and Bulgakov. Students will examine various forms and genres of literature,
learn basic techniques of literary criticism, and explore the way literature
is translated into film and other media. An additional focus of the course
will be on examining the uses and interpretations of classic literature
and elitist culture in contemporary Russian society. Observing the interplay
of the "high" and "low" in Russian cultural tradition,
students will develop methodology of cultural analysis.

This course is intended for students who have spoken
Russian at home and seek to achieve proficiency in the language. Topics
will include an intensive introduction to the Russian writing system and
grammar, focusing on exciting materials and examples drawn from classic
and contemporary Russian culture and social life. Students who complete
this course in combination with RUSS361 satisfy the Penn Language Requirement.

This course is intended for students who have spoken
Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional
uses of the Russian language. A study of classic Russian literature in
the original. Readings will consist of some of the greatest works of 19th
and 20th-century authors, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,
and Bulgakov. Students will examine various forms and genres of literature,
learn basic techniques of literary criticism, and explore the way literature
is translated into film and other media. An additional focus of the course
will be on examining the uses and interpretations of classic literature
and elitist culture in contemporary Russian society. Observing the interplay
of the "high" and "low" in Russian cultural tradition,
students will develop methodology of cultural analysis.

SLAV500 History of Literary Theory
All readings and lectures in English. Undergraduates need permission.

W 12 - 3pm Kaul S

This course will traverse the history of aesthetics in
order to understand the complexities of contemporary literary theory.
In a sense, our subject is the fall-out of a paradox, virtuality, in its
endless collisions with ideology. The syllabus will include such canonic
figures as Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Augustine, Sidney, Kant, Hegel,
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Saussure, Benjamin, Foucault, Baudrillard, Derrida,
Said, Irigaray, and Butler (in general, authors found on the Comparative
Literature examination list in theory). Course requirements: three short
papers (7 pages), and a class presentation.

The course is designed for graduate students with at
least advanced reading knowledge of Russian: seminar discussion will be
conducted in English, but a fair amount of reading will be assigned in
Russian. We will cover the development of Russian historical research
and writing from the start of the eighteenth century to the present, focusing
on major texts, schools and figures. Alongside this traditional historiographical
architecture, segments of the course will be devoted as well to a variety
of theoretical models and approaches to research, including: institutional
history, cultural history, poetics of history, philosophy of history,
"invention of tradition," trauma studies, and others.

RUSS001 Elementary Russian I
Non-CGS Students need permission from CGS

MW 6:30 - 9pm Oleinichenko L

This course develops elementary skills in reading, speaking,
understanding and writing the Russian language. We will work with an exciting
range of authentic written materials, the Internet, videos and recordings
relating to the dynamic scene of Russia today. At the end of the course
students will be comfortable with the Russian alphabet and will be able
to read simplified literary, ‘commercial’, and other types
of texts (signs, menus, short news articles, short stories) and participate
in elementary conversations about daily life (who you are, what you do
every day, where you are from, likes and dislikes).

This course will develop your ability to use the Russian
language in the context of typical everyday situations, including university
life, family, shopping, entertainment, etc. Role-playing, skits, short
readings from literature and the current press, and video clips will be
used to help students improve their language skills and their understanding
of Russian culture. At the end of the semester you will be able to read
and write short texts about your daily schedule and interests, to understand
brief newspaper articles, films and short literary texts, and to express
your opinions in Russian. In combination with RUSS 004, this course prepares
students to satisfy the language competency requirement.

RUSS196 Russian Short Story
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution III, Arts & Letters (Class of '09 and prior)
Offered through CGS

M 5:30 - 8:30pm Todorov V

This course studies the development of 19th and 20th
century Russian literature through one of its most distinct and highly
recognized genres—the short story. The readings include great masters
of fiction such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn,
and others. The course presents the best works of short fiction and situates
them in a literary process that contributes to the history of a larger
cultural-political context. Students will learn about the historical formation,
poetic virtue, and thematic characteristics of major narrative modes such
as romanticism, utopia, realism, modernism, socialist realism, and post-modernism.
We critique the strategic use of various devices of literary representation
such as irony, absurd, satire, grotesque, anec¬dote, etc. Some of
the main topics and issues include: culture of the duel; the role of chance;
the riddle of death; anatomy of madness; imprisonment and survival; the
pathologies of St. Petersburg; terror and homo sovieticus.

RUSS426 Chekhov on Stage and Screen
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution III, Arts & Letters (Class of '09 and prior)
Cross-listing: CINE365
Offered through CGS

T 5:30 - 8:30pm Zubarev V

Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program.
“What’s so funny, Mr. Chekhov?” This question is often
asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhov’s
definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of
them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies. Should
we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide,
or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the
laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome
be considered tragic? All these and other questions will be discussed
during the course. The course is intended to provide the participants
with a concept of dramatic genre that will assist them in approaching
Chekhov’s plays as comedies. In addition to reading Chekhov’s
works, Russian and western productions and film adaptations of Chekhov’s
works will be screened. Among them are, Vanya on 42nd Street with Andre
Gregory, and Four Funny Families. Those who are interested will be welcome
to perform and/or direct excerpts from Chekhov’s works.